Lukas 3:17

3:17 His winnowing fork ¹  is in his hand to clean out his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his storehouse, ²  but the chaff he will burn up with inextinguishable fire.” ³ 

Lukas 9:54

9:54 Now when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to call fire to come down from heaven and consume ⁴  them?” ⁵ 

Lukas 16:24

16:24 So ⁶  he called out, ⁷  ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus ⁸  to dip the tip of his finger ⁹  in water and cool my tongue, because I am in anguish ¹⁰  in this fire.’ ¹¹ 

[3:17]  ¹ sn A winnowing fork is a pitchfork-like tool used to toss threshed grain in the air so that the wind blows away the chaff, leaving the grain to fall to the ground. The note of purging is highlighted by the use of imagery involving sifting though threshed grain for the useful kernels.

[3:17]  ² tn Or “granary,” “barn” (referring to a building used to store a farm’s produce rather than a building for housing livestock).

[3:17]  ³ sn The image of fire that cannot be extinguished is from the OT: Job 20:26; Isa 34:8-10; 66:24.

[9:54]  ⁴ tn Or “destroy.”

[9:54]  ⁵ tc Most mss, especially the later ones (A C D W Θ Ψ Ë^1,13 33 Ï it), read here “as also Elijah did,” making the allusion to 2 Kgs 1:10, 12, 14 more explicit. The shorter reading has better and earlier support (Ì^45,75 א B L Ξ 579 700* 1241 pc lat sa). It is difficult to explain how the shorter reading could have arisen from the longer, especially since it is well represented early on. However, the longer reading looks to have been a marginal note originally, incorporated into the text of Luke by early scribes.

[9:54]  sn An allusion to 2 Kgs 1:10, 12, 14.

[16:24]  ⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of previous actions in the narrative.

[16:24]  ⁷ tn Grk “calling out he said”; this is redundant in contemporary English style and has been simplified to “he called out.”

[16:24]  ⁸ sn The rich man had not helped Lazarus before, when he lay outside his gate (v. 2), but he knew him well enough to know his name. This is why the use of the name Lazarus in the parable is significant. (The rich man’s name, on the other hand, is not mentioned, because it is not significant for the point of the story.)

[16:24]  ⁹ sn The dipping of the tip of his finger in water is evocative of thirst. The thirsty are in need of God’s presence (Ps 42:1-2; Isa 5:13). The imagery suggests the rich man is now separated from the presence of God.

[16:24]  ¹⁰ tn Or “in terrible pain” (L&N 24.92).

[16:24]  ¹¹ sn Fire in this context is OT imagery; see Isa 66:24.